Why You Should Never Drink Champagne Out Of A Plastic Cup

Okay, so we like Christmas dinner and stocking fillers as much as the next person. But one of our favourite things about the festive season is that it’s acceptable for us to quaff bubbly like we’re Eddie and Patsy.

From our work Christmas party to New Year’s Eve, it’s as though there’s a constant supply of champagne (or, let’s be honest, prosecco) at our fingertips.

But did you know that the taste of your champers can be affected by the glass it’s in?

According to a new study, it’s true. So if you’re reading this while sipping out of a plastic cup in the office, you may want to take note.

Apparently, serving sparkling wine in plastic or polystyrene cups makes the bubbles behave differently. This is because in disposable cups, they stick to the sides for longer and get bigger as a result.

Bubble size is important for taste, as our mouths are very sensitive to different textures.

‘It turns out the bubble formation process on styrofoam is completely different than on glass,’ lead study author Kyle S. Spratt – of the Applied Research Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin – tells The Independent.

‘So, if you ever have to resort to drinking champagne out of a styrofoam cup, the bubbles will be quite different.

‘There is a well-known notion that the quality of a sparkling wine is correlated to the size of its bubbles.’

And before you rush out to buy flute-shaped plastic glasses from M&S, that won’t work either.

Andrea Sella – professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London – says: ‘Using plastic glasses, for example, really isn’t so good because the bubbles actually stick quite strongly to the walls of the glass [and so are] bigger before they lift off.’

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